The economic havoc wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic has taken a financial toll on the world’s wealthy investors, affecting 70 per cent of them and forcing them to delay their retirement plans, according to a study by the Swiss bank UBS. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected how the wealthy think about money, as they now have less to pass on to their next generation, according to the May 2020 survey of 3,750 wealthy individuals in 15 markets including the United States, the UK, Germany, France, mainland China, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. The survey shows how the world’s worst health crisis of the last few decades is sparing no one in its economic toll, not even the well-heeled and the moneyed class. The short-term consumption slumps and economic recessions are spilling over to long-term negative implications on retirement plans and succession planing. “The pandemic is causing many of them to rethink how they'll fund their liquidity, longevity, and legacy needs,” said UBS’ global wealth management co-president Tom Naratil. Financial concerns are bubbling to the surface, as the coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 13 million people worldwide, and claimed more than half a million lives since it was first reported in central China’s Hubei province. The economic toll has been the worst since the Great Depression, with tens of millions of jobs lost, forcing global central banks to pour an estimated US$6 trillion in funds to prop up economies. In the short term, 56 per cent of those surveyed said they do not have sufficient liquid assets to weather another pandemic, according to UBS. In the longer-term, 65 per cent believe their retirement savings would be reduced, while 54 per cent are concerned that they wont leave enough money for their children, and 60 per cent worry about being a financial burden to their families should they fall ill. Hong Kong’s Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), a compulsory retirement scheme that covers 3 million people, lost 2.7 per cent of its value, or HK$23.26 billion (US$3 billion), in the first half of this year, as its investments fell along with slumping stock markets. Hong Kong’s economy contracted 8.9 per cent in the first three months of 2020 when the coronavirus forced businesses to lock down, the city’s worst quarter since economic records began in 1974. The u nemployment rate rose 5.9 per cent in the March to May period, with 230,400 people going jobless, its worst decline since the 2008 Financial Crisis. In the US, more than 27 per cent of people are using withdrawals from their retirement savings accounts as a source of income, as many are unemployed, according to a survey by Bankrate, a consumer financial services company based in New York. Over 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits as at the end of April, or about 23 per cent of the workforce, a level last seen during the 1930s Great Depression. There are also 59 million jobs at risk across the European Union and in the UK, according to a report by consultancy firm McKinsey at the end of April. The Covid-19 is also going to escalate deglobalisation, and more companies will move their production lines away from mainland China , according to a report by Japanese investment firm Nomura co-written by research analyst Lewis Alexander. “We expect unconventional monetary policies to be the new normal, and this will reduce the urgency for fiscal austerity to address the sharp rise in public debt,” Alexander said in the report released on Monday. “However, there is no free lunch. There is a danger of moral hazard fuelling excessive risk-taking and asset price bubbles.” “Income inequality is set to worsen substantially, leading to a political clamour for more drastic solutions, and Covid-19 could be the calm before the storm of a global food crisis in the coming years,” he said.